Nullarbor Plain: Map

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NASA - Visible Earth, Nullarbor.

The true Nullarbor is the light tan semi-circular area
adjacent to the coast.

Credit Jacques Descloitres.

Image acquired by the Terra satellite on August 19, 2002

The
Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat,
almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country
immediately north of the Great Australian Bight. The word Nullarbor is derived from
the Latinnullus, "no", and
arbor, "tree", and is . It is the world's largest single
piece of limestone, and occupies an area
of about . At its widest point, it stretches about from
east to west between South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA).

History

Historically, the Nullarbor was inhabited by the semi-nomadic
SpinifexWangai Aboriginal people. The average rainfall on the
Nullarbor Plain is about per year.

European settlers were determined to cross the plain, despite the
hardships created by the nature of the Nullarbor. Although Edward John Eyre described the Plain as "a
hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of Nature, the sort of place
one gets into in bad dreams", he became the first European to
successfully make the crossing in 1841.

Eyre set
out from Fowler's
Bay in South Australia on 17 November 1840 with John Baxter and a party of three
Aboriginal men. When three of his horses died of dehydration he was forced to return to Fowler's
Bay but made a second departure on 25 February 1841.

By 29
April, the party had reached Caiguna. Lack of supplies and water led to a
mutiny, and two of the Aborigines killed
Baxter and made off with the party's supplies. Eyre and the third
Aborigine, Wylie, continued on their
journey, surviving through bushcraft and some fortuitous
circumstances such as receiving some supplies from a French whaling
vessel anchored at Rossiter. They completed their crossing in June
1841.

A proposed new state Auralia (meaning "land
of gold") would have comprised the Goldfields, the western portion
of the Nullarbor Plains and the port town of Esperance.
Its
capital would have been Kalgoorlie.

The Wangai
Aboriginal people were forced to abandon their homelands during the
British nuclear tests at
Maralinga in the 1950s. Since then they have been
awarded compensation and many have returned to the general area. In
fact, many never left. Due to their isolation it was impossible to
warn them all about the testing.

Cultural significance

Road sign

'Crossing the Nullarbor', for many Australians, is a quintessential
experience of the 'Australian
Outback'. Stickers bought from roadhouses on the highway show
'I have crossed the Nullarbor', and can be seen on vehicles of
varying quality or capacity for long distance travel. The process
of 'beating the crowds' on overbooked air services at the time of
special sporting events can also see significant numbers of
vehicles on the road.

Crossings in the 1950s and earlier were significant as most of the
road back then was unmade dirt track. Round-Australia car trials
(The Redex Trials) utilised the Nullarbor crossing for good photo
shoots of cars negotiating poor tracks.

Geography

Escarpment near Eucla

The Nullarbor Plain is thought to be a former seabed. The region is also the location of
Nullarbor limestone and it has a reputation as a
significant karst region

One theory is that the whole area was uplifted by crustal
movements, and since then, erosion by wind
and rain has smoothed out most topographic features, resulting in the extremely
flat terrain across the plain today. The plain is a series of
tiers. Each tier is flat and was formed when the sea level was much
higher than it is today.

The southern ocean, in areas, blows through many subterranean caves
resulting in blow holes up to several hundred metres from the
coast. One such area open for public inspection are the Murrawijinie Caves, in South Australia.
Most other caves can only be visited and viewed with Department of
Environment and Conservation approval.

Vegetation in the area is primarily low saltbush and bluebush
scrub. A large part of the Nullarbor Plain is now a National
Park.

The Nullarbor is known for extensive meteorite deposits, which are extremely
well-preserved in the arid climate. In particular, many meteorites
have been discovered around Mundrabilla,
some up to several tonnes in weight.

Climate

Rainbow over the Nullarbor Plain

The prevailing climate across the Nullarbor is typical of a desert,
characterised by arid to semi-arid conditions, with maximum daytime
temperatures of up to 48.5 °C (119.3 °F), although nights can see
freezing conditions. The mean annual rainfall at Cook is 179.7 mm (7 inches)
[23450].

Transport

The need for a communications link across the continent was the
spur for the development of an east-west crossing. Once Eyre had
proved that a link between South Australia and Western Australia
was possible, efforts to connect them via telegraph began. In 1877, after two years of
labour, the first messages were sent down the new telegraph line,
boosted by a series of eight repeater
stations along the way. The line operated for about 50 years before
being superseded; relics of it are still visible.

The
Trans-Australian Railway
railway line crosses the Nullarbor Plain from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta.Construction of the line began in 1917, when
two teams set out from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and Port
Augusta in South Australia, meeting in the centre of the Plain at
Ooldea, an uninhabited area noted for a water
supply. This original line suffered severe problems with
track flexing and settling in the desert sands, and journeys across
the Plain were slow and arduous. The line was entirely rebuilt in
1969, as part of a project to standardise the previously disparate
rail gauges in the various states, and
the first crossing of the Nullarbor on the new line reached Perth
on 27 February 1970. The Indian
Pacific is a regular passenger train crossing the Nullarbor
from Perth to Sydney via Adelaide.

The
Eyre Highway, which connects Norseman in Western Australia to Port Augusta, was carved
across the continent in 1941. At first it was little more
than a rough track, but was gradually sealed over the next thirty
years. The last unsealed section of the Eyre Highway was finally
sealed in 1976. Unlike the railway, though, it crosses the plain at
its southernmost edge rather than through the centre.

The railway line holds the record for the longest straight section
of railway in the world (478 km), while the road contains the
longest straight piece of tarred road surface in Australia
(146.6 km).

Most of the inhabited areas of the Nullarbor Plain can be found in
a series of small settlements located along the railway line, and
in small settlements along the Eyre Highway that provide services
to travellers, mostly spaced between one and two hundred kilometres
apart. The town of Cook, in South Australia, was formerly a moderately thriving settlement of
about 40 people, with a school and a golf course. However,
the scaling back of railway operations at the town resulted in its
virtual desertion, and it now has a permanent population of just
four. The Tea and Sugar Train
operated until 1996 supplying provisions to the town along the
railway line.

Biogeography

Limits

Frequently The Nullarbor is
expanded in tourist literature and web based material to a context
of all land between Adelaide, South Australia to Perth, Western Australia - so that caution must be made as to understanding
the correct limits in web based and other materials.